Erev Shabbat Message from Rabbi Feldman

Dear Friends,

In my office are the diplomas I received at my ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. More than just a piece of paper, the diploma describes the role the Rabbi should take in his or her career. The phrase says, "Rabbi, Teacher and Preacher."

I see all of these roles as equally important as I serve The Jewish Center and I know that at times these roles can intersect and intertwine - one example is Shabbat morning. Often times, I choose to preach - to deliver a sermon in an attempt to connect the weekly Torah portion to our contemporary lives. Tomorrow I will serve more as a teacher, taking the opportunity to teach throughout the service. My plan for tomorrow is to not only share some thoughts about the weekly Torah Reading of Parashat Bamidbar, but also to spend some time during the service to teach about our prayers, to highlight certain key prayers or phrases in the Siddur that are critical to our liturgy. My goal is help our congregants see certain prayers in a new light or perhaps connect to them to prayer differently than before.

For the past two years, Hazzan Dulkin and I have each shared our views on some of the commentaries and essays that enhance our Siddur Lev Shalem. Tomorrow I will focus on the prayers themselves, discuss the origins of certain prayers and how they relate to one another. In place of a formal sermon, I plan to present these thoughts interspersed throughout the service and I encourage you to join us for the morning. My goal is to shed new light on our ancient prayers and to encourage people to continue to discuss them beyond our service.

I invite you to join us for Shabbat services tomorrow to be together as a community, to celebrate a wonderful Bat Mitzvah and to dig a bit deeper into our Siddur for understanding, for personal growth and for connection to our sacred texts.

Next week as we celebrate the holiday of Shavuot, we will have more opportunities to continue our Jewish learning. Please join us Tuesday evening, for our Tikun Leil Shavuot, an engaging evening and at our services on Wednesday and Thursday.